All NJ Teens Can Get COVID Vaccine With CDC Approval: Gov. Murphy

NEW JERSEY – Parents, please get your teenager vaccinated against coronavirus. That's the message from Gov. Phil Murphy at his Wednesday press conference.

As expected, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel approved the emergency-use authorization of Pfizer's vaccine for teens ages 12-15 on Wednesday afternoon. Gov. Murphy said all New Jersey teens in that age group would be able to get the shot as early as Thursday.

"Every New Jersey resident within this age group will be eligible to receive Pfizer's vaccine wherever it is being administered," said Murphy Wednesday. "This will be a big step forward for public health ...

"We encourage all parents to talk now with their adolescent children about getting vaccinated. And when the CDC approval is given, to go out and do so."

Teen vaccinations could start as early as Thursday. All children need parental approval.

Teens can be vaccinated any place the Pfizer vaccine is already given out. Murphy said he could not comment yet on whether New Jersey will require children and teens get the coronavirus vaccine to go back to school in September.

"I hope we can get there of their own free will to get vaccinated as opposed to mandating it," said Murphy Wednesday. "I will say this: It's just a reality that it's gonna be a lot more convenient to be vaccinated, and a lot more inconvenient to not be vaccinated. That's just gonna be a fact over time."

For example, nursing home employees who choose not to be vaccinated will have to endure being tested for the coronavirus up to twice a week, said State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli. This is a new policy the state Dept. of Health just announced Wednesday.

106,086 NJ residents under 18 have gotten coronavirus; seven died

On Monday night, the Food and Drug Administration said the Pfizer vaccine was safe to be given to teens ages 12-15. However, America had been waiting for the CDC to weigh in. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met Wednesday and made the recommendation that the Pfizer vaccine for teens should be given emergency-use authorization.

Persichilli urged teens to get the shot.

"This population will be immediately eligible," said Persichilli. "I want to send a message to parents of children who will be eligible, perhaps as soon as tomorrow: New Jersey is moving in the right direction, with case numbers declining, and having this age group vaccinated will help us fight this virus even further. The Pfizer vaccine is safe."

Parents who have questions should talk to their pediatricians, she said.

To date, 106,086 teens and children under 18 in New Jersey have gotten coronavirus, according to the Department of Health's COVID-19 dashboard. Seven of those have died, Murphy said.

Also, 116 New Jersey children were diagnosed with multi-system inflammatory syndrome, and many of those kids either tested positive for the virus or were close to someone who had the virus. All of those children had to be hospitalized, said Persichilli. Most improved with medical care and there were no deaths associated with the syndrome.

"We have seen, in very rare cases, children can get very ill with this virus," she said. "While many do not think this virus can be serious for children, the data shows that it can be."

"Even though our youngest residents have the lowest rates of hospitalization and deaths, they have had among the greatest rate of transmission," added Murphy.

Walk-ins make it easier to get teens vaccinated

Murphy stressed that many sites are now offering walk-ins, so he said that should make it easy for parents to get their teen vaccinated.

"In most places you can just walk in without an appointment," said Murphy. "From our mega sites to local pharmacies, they are accepting folks for no-appointment, walk-up vaccinations."

Some New Jersey towns, such as Hoboken, already said they are ready to start giving the vaccine to teens this week, and encouraged parents to sign their children up in advance.

But many other town-run vaccine sites, such as Woodbridge, said they do not have the Pfizer vaccine in stock and therefore cannot vaccinate teens.

It is unknown if the state will give New Jersey towns more of the Pfizer vaccine so teens can be vaccinated.

Pfizer is the only vaccine that has been approved for use in teens ages 12-15. The Pfizer vaccine had previously been approved for anyone 16 and older.

Pfizer is currently testing its vaccine on much younger children, those six months to 11 years, and Rutgers is a trial site. However, experts do not expect that vaccine to be approved until the fall.

"By this fall, there may be a vaccine authorized for patients that young, but I wouldn't expect anything earlier than that," said NJ Department of Health Communicable Disease Service Medical Director Dr. Edward Lifshitz.

The coronavirus vaccine trials for children have been much smaller than the initial adult trials: The Pfizer vaccine trial for teens only enrolled 2,260 adolescents 12 to 15 in the United States.

Pfizer is now currently in the midst of its vaccine trial for much younger children, those six months to 11 years. Similarly, that trial will only enroll 4,644 children total worldwide in that age group.

But pharmaceutical companies have said that childhood trials are nearly always much smaller than their initial adult trials, and that they can determine safety and efficacy using the adult trial results.

The adult Pfizer vaccine trial enrolled more than 44,000 people worldwide.

"We have an understanding of safety and efficacy of the vaccine of 12-15 year-olds included in that study," said Jerica Pitts, director of global media relations for Pfizer said on May 7.

As Patch reported, Rutgers is a clinical trial site for the global Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine in children ages 6 months to 11 years. Rutgers is currently seeking children to be enrolled in that trial.

Vaccinating students would go toward Murphy's goal of having everyone return to in-person learning full-time for the beginning of the 2021-22 school year. Murphy has also been advocating for a full return to classroom instruction, possibly by the end of the 2020-21 school year. Read more here: NJ Needs All Kids Back In Classrooms Amid COVID

As of Monday, 338 school districts were open for in-person learning full time, while 13 were still using an all-remote format.

Getting teens vaccinated:

"Will be a big step that will allow for students and educators to feel more confident in being in their classrooms for the remainder of this year, and will set us up for every school to be fully back to in-person instruction in September," said Murphy Wednesday.

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